You Likely Won’t “Find Your Passion”, It’s Not Realistic.

You likely won’t find your passion, it’s bogus and mostly futile to waste time trying.

Let’s be honest here for a moment, if you have not found your passion in life by now, and made a career of it, you likely won’t.

I am not trying to be ultra-negative here, but there are countless articles about ways to find your passion, how to follow it, and how it will lead to unlimited happiness and it is all just utter B.S. The reason there are so many posts, articles and websites dedicated to this idea is because so many of us are stuck in dead end jobs, making us unhappy and it’s super nice to pipe dream and think about how you could make a living as an artist, musician, crafter (fill in the blank here). Much of what you find online is just clickbait. They all say, “if money wasn’t an obstacle, what would you do?”, well, unfortunately, money is an obstacle.

We aren’t going to wake up one day with all of our debts paid, our mortgage paid off and not have any money worries. Here is what is actually realistic and may help you make life more bearable:

Try to be passionate about something at your existing job

Instead of following the typical advice of “Try to be passionate about everything”, just try to find one or two things to be passionate about at your existing job and give it your attention. I know it seems tough, and you say to yourself that you hate every aspect of your job, but in reality, it’s probably not all bad. Find something that you can be passionate about without quitting everything first.

It can be the smallest thing, like talking to the one co-worker you can actually stand, or your time on your lunch break where you can listen to your favorite tunes, or meeting new people, there is always something to find some passion in. Once you find your one thing, it will make life at work more bearable, and you will discover your passion will expand into other aspects of work.

Find or expand some hobbies outside of work

Everyone has a hobby that they enjoy, we just don’t give any attention or time to these hobbies. Instead, we leave work, go home and plop in front of the TV until dinner, then we watch more, go to bed and start the cycle again the next day. Take your hobbies and fill the gap between clocking out and clocking back in again.

Doesn’t matter what your hobby is, even if it’s collecting matchbooks and organizing them alphabetically, it’s yours, and believe it or not, you like it because you have passion for it. If you put a little time into your hobby each day, it might turn into something monetary someday. And then, you are making money doing something you are passionate about.

Find a side hustle, and do not worry about how much money it makes you

Here is another topic you can find endless posts about online, side hustles. This one carries some merit. Only one caveat, do not worry about making money from it, just make sure you enjoy spending time doing it.

Again, start small, maybe you can sell or trade your matchbooks online, maybe you can draw pictures and sell them, maybe you like to bake cookies, you could probably sell them? Who knows, it’s up to you, but there are hundreds of thousands of ways to monetize something you enjoy even if you only make a few bucks a month doing it.

Once you start generating a little money, you will put more and more effort into it, and magically, you are “following a passion”. It may not replace your real job, but it will certainly help you feel better about life and your options moving forward.

Manage your finances better

This one is boring as hell but is probably the most important. You need to look at your finances and develop a monthly budget. Most people do not even know what their monthly outgoing bills add up to, and they should.

Once you look at your budget, you will realize there are quite a few things you can cut out and live without.

Maybe you don’t need your Unlimited online Music account, maybe you don’t need HBO, maybe the extra trip to Starbucks each week is unnecessary. Everyone has something they can cut. Doing this will put things into perspective, and maybe if you cut enough, you realize you can afford to work 4 days a week instead of 5 or at least work fewer hours. You will be surprised at what you find when you put it all out in front of you.

Actually find a good Work/Life Balance

Right now, you are probably working the largest chunk of the day, you need to take the rest of whatever is left and make it yours. Time is our most valuable asset. Make a little use of the morning before work, even if it’s just a 10-minute meditation break, or a few extra minutes listening to music before you punch in. If you do not completely disconnect from work before and after your work hours, you will realize when you are 70 that all you ever did was work, and that is not a desirable life.

Once you punch out, it’s over, do something with your time outside of work. You will find that the more you start doing things outside of work, the more bearable the workday becomes, you will have something to look forward to during the day. You will know that “your time” begins soon, and you can enjoy it however you want, just make sure to enjoy it!

Most of you are thinking by now that is a secret, tricky post to get you to “find your passion” and maybe you are right. But there is no way you can just drop everything and go become a fishing guide in Montana simply because you like fishing, we all know this, I am just being realistic.

Try using few of these methods and maybe, just maybe, you will “find your passion” and follow it, you just might need to do it while you are working full time.